White Man's Burden Sparknotes

“The White Man’s Burden” was first introduced in 1899. It explains that it is the responsibility of “white man” to take care of other countries who are, basically “non white”. Although the idea was introduced after the colonization of Pacific islands, somehow it sums up why the “White man” were there, trying to “take care” of the native people. Even though the most popular inspiration for the Europeans to set sail to the Pacific was to “explore”. The less popular, but also well known reason is to spread the word of god, and that sounds more like good Christian’s “duty”. However, the interaction between the Europeans and the indigenous people shows some insight that it is not the always “White man” who were “great”. John Ledyard’s journal is

When Captain Cook was trying to land at Australia, he was faced with the aggressive natives who were fighting to resist the landing. “they vigorously opposed the landing of the 30 or 40 well-armed Europeans, and refused to give way even when they were shot at” (R 98). This is a different reaction from the natives we have seen so far. It simply shows that the native Aborigines were more rebellious, thus reflected how they lived their lives differently from other indigenous people the Europeans have encountered. This could also be supported by Jared Diamond’s Guns, germs, and steel. He mentioned that the Aborigines were “seminomadic hunter-gatherers” , and that they “developed some of the earliest known stone tools with ground edges, the earliest hafted stone tools” and “the earliest watercraft, in the world” (R 33). This shows how the Aborigines lived their life and how they benefited from being a hunter-gatherers. It explains why, once the European crew arrived at their land, they were aggressive and fight, because it is their natural traits. More importantly, Diamond also mentioned that two white explorers who were trying to fight the desert’s heat were rescued by the Aborigines. Unfortunately, after one of them shot the Aborigines, they abandoned them and resulted in the two “died within a month after the Aborigine’s departure” (R 33). This also supports that the Aborigines, benefitted from being natives, knew how to survive better in their land. Despite the fact that they did not have guns as the Europeans did, they still survive. This could be because they did not have advanced tools, they developed crucial skills to hunt and knew how to deal with the dry climates (but it could also be because they were already adapted to the environment). This characteristic of the Aborigines stands as one of the example of the